The Great Lich Debate (and necromancers, too)

[Sjeng]

hahaha, I'm in stich's.

[knightkrawler]

That would be stiches...

[Sjeng]

that wouldn't be funny. -.-

[TMU]

But that would

[el_flesh]

Since we're dealing with things like Alchemy and other utter fantasy stuff like 'souls', you can interpret it for your group how you want! Any given body is born with and needs a soul - and with it departed the body is dead. But if you tie the soul to the Earth without killing the body at all - then an UNNATURAL state is entered - where the body is dead, but can still do some things that seem alive, like moving and gathering sensory info. No need for sleep, air, food, water; unaffected by poison or moderate cold/heat/wet. Probably no need for sex.
mebbe we could say your body is dead but YOU are not!

So how does a dead body move since it takes in no energy thru food? It would presumably have to be the same thing as a mummy or a skeleton. "Energy" from the nether-realm moves it.